1. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to a watercraft in which the hull folds into a suitcase shape. More particularly, this invention pertains to a watercraft in which the hull is formed of a planar sheet that is divided into sections that are joined at integral hinges. The planar sheet is a corrugated material and the hinges are cut or formed into the material. In various configurations, the watercraft includes a canopy, a paddle drive system, a folding built-in seat with integral rudder control, and various hull shapes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Boats, or more generally, watercraft or water vessels, have been in use throughout the history of mankind. Traditionally, boats are big and bulky, typically sized to hold one or more persons. By their nature, boats are rigid, or sufficiently so, to maintain their shape when in the water carrying persons and/or cargo. With the advent of more leisure time, recreational use of boats has increased. To facilitate recreational use, there is a desire to have boats that are easily transportable.
Various attempts have been made to have boats that are useable in the water and collapsible or foldable for easy transport to the water. The following patents describe some of these attempts:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,880,429, titled “Collapsible boats,” discloses a boat formed from a single sheet. The sheet includes multiple members hinged together such that the members fold into a boat. In the example given in the patent, the members are sandwiched between inner and outer sheets 29, 30. The gap between the members acts as a hinge.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,180, titled “Collapsible portable boat and its method of assembly,” discloses a light weight, high buoyancy boat made of corrugated thermoplastic synthetic resin sheets 10, 20, 30. Lines or creases are pressed onto the sheets for folding. In addition to the sheets 10, 20, 30, reinforcing materials 41 are used. The boat includes a vessel portion or a main body. Attached to the main body is a float portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,551, titled “Boat hulls,” discloses a process for forming a thermoplastic sheet material into a boat hull. The process forms fold lines in a sheet 10. The fold lines have memory and cause the sheet 10 to assume a folded shape. The sheet 10 is readily rolled into a compact package for transportation. When it is unrolled it again tends to assume its folded shape from the memory built into the fold lines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,540, titled “Collapsible foldaway dinghy,” discloses a synthetic single skin 12 having panels joined by flexible watertight webs. The dinghy 10 can be folded into a small package that fits in a car trunk.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,597, titled “Seamless foldable boat,” discloses a boat hull formed from a one piece mold. The hull is a plastic or elastomeric material with foam core construction. The hull bottom includes intrinsically hinged bottom areas 23 between foamed core members. The sides of the hull includes foam cored sides 26 connected to side membranes 25. To provide rigidity, various other members 28, 29, 30 are attached to the one piece hull.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,276, titled “Suitcase boat,” discloses a pontoon boat 10 having four sections 16, 18 connected by hinges 22. The boat 10 folds into a suitcase-type configuration with the pontoons, or floats, 24 fitting inside the folded boat sections. U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,584, is a continuation-in-part of the suitcase boat 10 patent application.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,706, titled “Collapsible pontoon pedal boat,” discloses a watercraft with a body, two inflatable flotation members, a drive assembly, a steering assembly, and a seat. The body portion folds to form a compact storage case that accommodates all the elements of the watercraft. FIG. 9 illustrates the watercraft in the folded position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,080, titled “Folding portable boat,” discloses a boat 10 with four rigid hull sections 12, 13, 14, 15 that are hingedly connected to fold together or to open into a boat 10. The sections are made of flotation material 61 that is covered with a skin, such as fiberglass, aluminum, thermoplastic, or from a woven structure/resin transfer molding other than fiberglass.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,005, titled “Foldable boat,” discloses a boat having an outer hull plate 1 and a waterproofing member 2 that covers the outer hull plate 1. Hull-forming members 10a-h are plank-like members that are connected together by flexible members 3. Tightening the flexible members 3 causes the hull-forming members 10 to form a rigid hull, and loosening the flexible members 3 allows the hull-forming members 10 to fold together accordion-like.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,762, titled “Foldable boat with light weight hull construction system,” discloses a boat made with extruded corrugated plastic. The boat hull 47 is formed of sections 8-15 that are flat blank hull sections with fastener holes 49 and hinge score lines 50. The flat blank hull section is folded into the desired shape at the score lines 50, which form living hinges.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,758, titled “Folding boat,” discloses a folding boat 10 having a deck 12, safety fences 26, and pontoons 28. The deck 12 includes two main panels connected with a hinge 14 and several drop leaf panels 16 that are hingedly connected to the main panels. Folding the two halves of the deck 12 forms a compact structure.